The discrepancy between population census figures and school committee returns of school-age children

Problem: Local school committees in Massachusetts were required by law to determine annually the number of school-age children (four to sixteen until 1850, five to fifteen thereafter). All the attendance ratios calculated by Horace Mann and his successors were based on these figures for school-age children. However, no funds were provided to the committees for these annual censuses, and it is apparent that some towns performed this duty casually at best. In 1850, for example, the town of Dracut admitted that it had simply reported the number of school attenders. The Lawrence school committee complained of inaccurate answers from householders, commenting that “in the minds of many of the less informed part of our peculiar community, the census-taker is associated with taxation.” The only available check on these suspect figures are the population censuses taken by the federal government and, in middecade, by the state. The discrepancy between the annual school committee census figures and the periodic population figures is often substantial, sometimes as great as 10 to 15 percent. Moreover, there is a rural–urban bias in the discrepancy. The school figures for smaller towns more closely approximate the census figures than do those for large towns, which more consistently underestimate their school-age populations and thereby overestimate school enrollment.